So high my reputation stands, And Steuart and Sallust now combine I, who was only used to write Instead of horses, grooms, and gigs, Then cease, my Lords, to brand my face Since now I'm proud to know The characters I trace shall stand, "I am always, whether in prose or rhyme, my dear sir, most faithfully yours, H. MACKENZIE." This translation of Sallust, with the preliminary dissertations and notes, was published by Baldwin & Co., London, in the year 1806, in two large quarto volumes, and is now out of print. To the literary world a new and less costly edition would doubtless give much satisfaction, as it still retains its position as the best translation of any of the classical authors, accompanied by much important information on subjects connected with Roman history, which has appeared in our times. It is to be regretted, however, that this was the only publication of the kind which was published by Sir Henry, whose close application to literary pursuits for the preceding ten years C of his life had so materially affected his health, that he was obliged, by the advice of the late Dr Gregory, his principal medical adviser, to employ himself in more active out-of-door occupations, with the view of restoring and preserving his health. A constitutional tendency to severe headachs, increased by his sedentary habits, induced Sir Henry accordingly to devote his attention more closely than ever to his favourite employment of transplanting, which, as already remarked, more or less occupied him during the remainder of his life. He occasionally, however wrote for the Anti-Jacobin, and other leading periodicals of the day; and among his papers are to be found several uncompleted manuscripts, ranging in their dates from the publication of Sallust through a period of upwards of twenty years, consisting of a History of the Rebellion of 1745, the commencement of a History of Scotland, and several astronomical and other works. At a considerably later period he contributed many of the materials which he had collected for his History of the Rebellion to Mr Chambers, for his interesting "Jacobite Memoirs" of that period, published in 1834. Soon after his translation of Sallust was made public, Sir Henry received the honorary degree of LL.D. from a Scottish university, and also about the same period was appointed a Fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies of Edinburgh. In 1814, he was created a baronet of Great Britain, the patent bearing date 27th December 1814, with remainder to his only daughter and son-inlaw Reginald Macdonald of Staffa, Esq., and their heirs male. From a manuscript history of the family, quoted in Crawford's "History of Renfrewshire," in an edition published by Robertson in 1818, we learn that, in the year 1687, the offer of a baronetage was made to Sir Henry's ancestor, William Steuart of Allanton, through the interest of his brother-in-law Sir James Steuart, a younger son of the Steuarts of Coltness, then secretary of state in the reign of James II., and, on his declining it, it was given to his cousin Sir Robert Steuart of Allanbank. We come now, after passing over an interval of several years, during which Sir Henry was occupied with his experiments in arboriculture, and the creation, as we may term it, of the Park at Allanton, to the publication of the first edition of the "Planter's Guide," in 1828. It is foreign to the object of this memoir to enter upon any of the details of Sir Henry's new system of Transplanting, especially as this has been sufficiently done in the work itself, in the report of the Highland Agricultural Society, (a deputation from which waited upon Sir Henry at Allanton,) and in the several leading periodicals, namely, the Quarterly, Edinburgh, and Westminster Reviews, and also in Blackwood's Magazine, in all of which the author received the highest commendations.* The Report of the Highland Society (among the members of whose deputation we find the names of Lord Belhaven, Lord Corehouse, and Sir Walter Scott) is appended to both the former and the present editions of the "Planter's Guide," and contains a full though succinct statement of the improvements in the Park at Allanton, towards the close of the year 1823. After a careful inspection of Sir Henry's whole plan of operations, and the result of his repeated experiments since nearly the commencement of the century, the committee closed their Report with the following remarks, expressive of their high approval of the new system and its results :-"Upon the whole, it is * Sir Walter Scott contributed the admirable article which appeared in the Quarterly Review, March 1828; and the equally able review of the "Planter's Guide" in Blackwood's Magazine, during the same year, was from the pen of Professor Wilson. Dr Southwood Smith was the author of the article in the Westminster Review about the same period. humbly their opinion, that Sir Henry, by philosophical attention to the nature of the change to which he was about to subject the trees which he has transplanted, has attained, at no extravagant expense, the power so long desired of anticipating the slow progress of vegetation, and accomplishing, within two or three seasons, those desirable changes on the face of nature, which he who plants in early youth can, in ordinary cases, only hope to witness in advanced life." This high approval was further confirmed at a later period by the presentation of a gold medal to Sir Henry, by the members of the Highland Society, on the publication of the "Planter's Guide," in 1828.* From many other quarters, Sir Henry received similar expressions of approbation, and applications from many of the nobility and gentry of the United Kingdom, to assist them with his advice in their contemplated improvements on his system. Among other correspondents, he had frequent communication with Sir Walter Scott, who had reviewed his work of transplanting, in a most favourable manner, in one of the leading periodicals. So far back as the year 1823, we find Sir Henry corresponding with Sir Walter, and both these distinguished arboriculturists mutually comparing notes and exchanging information on a subject so interesting to both parties. We have before us a long letter from Sir Walter Scott, to his friend Sir Henry, dated 23d February 1823, fully describing Sir Walter's operations at Abbotsford, with the results of his experiments, from which our limits prevent our quoting at large, as we could otherwise have wished. The letter concludes as follows: * The Gold Medal presented to Sir Henry, by the Highland Society, bears the following inscription :-" Presented to Sir Henry Steuart, of Allanton, Bart LL.D., F.R.S.E. &c. with the resolution of a general Meeting of the Highland Society of Scotland, voting to him the thanks of the Society, for his essay on transplanting full-grown trees, 8th January, 1828." "I cannot flatter myself that any thing I have said can be very interesting to you. Most of my neighbours go to work in the barbarous old way of lopping, and topping, and planting many deformed and maimed pollards by way of beauty, on which subject, I cry like Wisdom in the highways, and am not regarded. I would rather have a decayed tree, than a deficient one; as some beau said he would choose rather to have a hole in his stocking than a darn; the one might be negligence, the other inferred premeditated and confessed poverty. I am happy to think that your discoveries may prevent both extremities, and am, dear Sir Henry, your obliged humble servant, "EDINBURGH, 23d February 1823." "WALTER SCOTT." However much Sir Henry and Sir Walter Scott agreed in the main, they differed slightly in some points both in the theory and practice of transplanting, as is evident from some of the statements in an essay on the planting of waste lands, by Sir Walter, which appeared in the seventy-second number of the Quarterly Review. In the notes towards the close of the Second Edition of the "Planter's Guide," when defending Sir Walter against some attacks that had been made upon him by Mr Withers, Sir Henry, however, describes this essay as, "independently of its other merits, one of the most powerful, judicious, and useful practical tracts existing in the language. From the singularly rapid way," he adds, "in which the great author is known to write, and from the circumstance of his professing no accurate knowledge of phytology, it cannot seem wonderful that some errors, both in the theory and the practice, should have crept into the essay." Besides any slight differences of opinion on the subject of transplanting, between these two practical |